The Pittsburgh Pirates are dealing with a slump over the past 10 games or so, something that was to be expected at parts throughout the year. The Pirates just have to keep playing as hard as possible and hope that things turn around, though a recent sweep against the Philadelphia Phillies certainly isn't what anybody was hoping for.
The Pirates have now lost two of their last three series, a concerning sign for a team that was one of the better teams in baseball to start the year. Given how competitive the National League Central has been, changes have to be made soon for things to go the way Pittsburgh was hoping when the year began.
One way to do that would be to call up a top prospect, though the decisions from the organization on Seth Hernandez definitely don't suggest that he's coming up anytime soon.
One writer for The Athletic believes their handling of the situation is far from ideal, comparing it to that of former top prospect Grayson Rodriguez.
“I understand the philosophy here of managing his workload to try to keep him healthy, but I keep looking back at how strict the Baltimore Orioles were with Grayson Rodriguez, and that poor guy is now rehabbing in Low A after 21 months away from the majors.
“In this particular outing, taking Hernandez out after five innings was the right call because he’d lost so much command. But on the whole, I would like to see the Pirates build him up more than this and work on pacing himself more through outings, which might mean not rearing back for 98 when he’s trying to get a strikeout,” Keith Law wrote.
I don't know if Hernandez is ready to play at this level just yet, as playing in Major League Baseball is the toughest thing in the world to do. However, I agree with Law that they don't want to keep his pitch count too low and then try to rev things up out of nowhere.
If anything, this is a young kid who needs to get a lot of innings under his belt, as the Pirates are hopeful that he's eventually going to be a guy they can call upon to get outs at the highest level.
That doesn't seem to be this year, but it wouldn't be as surprising a decision as it seems if the Pirates don't figure some things out over the next few weeks.